Dawn, Melissa

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Unlike most artists, unfortunately Melissa didn't grow up with a paintbrush in her hand. Raised by parents who encouraged her imagination, Melissa has always created fantasy worlds and stories in her head. While she loves painting angels and fairies, faery kittens have become her favorite subjects to paint. And she loves to hear about her customers kitties as well!

A self-taught artist, Melissa spends her days wrapped up in her own fantasy worlds as much as possible, which usually consists of day-dreaming about (and working on!) her next paintings. One of her favorite things to do is show her art at fairs and festivals, where she meets a lot of wonderful people!

Melissa Dawn was born in Northern California in 1983. While she always enjoyed beading and crafting, Melissa never imaged that one day she would become an artist. In 2006, after graduating college, she discovered fairy art at a local county fair and fell head over heels in love. To make up for lost time, Melissa dedicated herself to painting 12-14 hours a day (yes, seriously!), while working towards a Master's Degree in Library Science. By the time Melissa was ready to graduate, she had already begun selling her artwork and jewelry, and decided to pursue a career in art instead.

Melissa opened up her art business in 2007 under the name "Spellbound Wings" since she was painting fairies, angels... and one angel cat. To her surprise, the angel cat was one of her best sellers at the first festival Melissa vended at in April 2007. She painted two more fairy cats, including "Purrfect Autumn," which was based on her kitten Strider. Purrfect Autumn became an instant best-seller, and Melissa happily began painting more fairy cats. Slowly they took over, until she was painting winged cats almost exclusively. To reflect this change, in 2010 Melissa and Tim changed the name of her business to Melissa Dawn Art.